Actuarial Regulation

The central recommendation of the Morris Review of the Actuarial Profession (published in March 2005) was that self-regulation by the actuarial profession should be subject to independent oversight and standard setting by the Financial Reporting Council. The FRC assumed this responsibility in April 2006 and agreed a Memorandum of Understanding with the UK actuarial professional bodies (the Faculty of Actuaries in Scotland and the Institute of Actuaries, collectively known as the Actuarial Profession) in May 2006.

The FRC’s responsibilities for actuarial regulation are delivered through three of its operating bodies. Further details about these bodies and their work are set out on the pdf links below:

The Board for Actuarial Standards (BAS) - which has been established to set actuarial technical standards;

The Professional Oversight Board (POB) – which oversees the way in which the Actuarial Profession regulates its members acting in their professional capacity;

The Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board (AADB) – which operates an investigation and discipline scheme in relation to matters involving members of the Actuarial Profession which raise or appear to raise important issues affecting the public interest in the UK.

The FRC has also established a Joint Actuarial Stakeholder Interests Working Group primarily to provide input from direct and indirect users of actuarial services to the work of the BAS and the POB.

Through these arrangements, the FRC and its operating bodies seek to promote high quality actuarial practice and the integrity, competence and transparency of the actuarial profession – to the benefit of all those who rely on actuarial advice or are affected by it.

Recent publications

Discussion Paper: Promoting Actuarial Quality (May 2008)

This discussion paper aims to assist:

• Actuaries - in seeking to provide high quality actuarial work;
• Direct clients, their representatives and advisers - in evaluating the quality of actuarial information and advice and making appropriate decisions based on it;
• Regulators - when undertaking and reporting on their regulation of actuaries and the entities they inform and advise; and
• All stakeholders including end-users and their representatives - in evaluating the effectiveness with which actuarial quality is being promoted.

Responses to Discussion Paper: Promoting Actuarial Quality (May 2008)

FRC documents

To download a copy of the Memorandum of Understanding and the communication arrangements between the Actuarial Profession and the FRC, please click on the pdf links below.

Memorandum of Understanding

Communication between the Actuarial Profession and the FRC

The FRC issued progress reports prior to the assumption of its responsibilities for actuarial standards and regulation in April 2006.  The March 2006 progress report is available below:

• Progress Report, March 2006
  

Other useful links: 

www.actuaries.org.uk  

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/morris_review/review_morris_index.cfm  

FRC